Re: ibm tts run-time engine purchasing alternatives

[Tim Cross <tcross@rapttech.com.au>]

Its all a bit like the saying goes 

"Linux is user friendly, its just more picky about which users it
wants to be friendly with."

Tim
John Heim writes:
 > At 09:49 AM 2/12/2006, Gary Lawrence Murphy wrote:
 > > >>>>> "J" == John G Heim <jheim@wisc.edu> writes:
 > >
 > >     J> ... when you think about it, the vast majority of people are
 > >     J> going to expect to get a package that they can just install
 > >     J> with a single command or two.
 > >
 > >When you actually think about it, this is not true.
 > 
 > Of course it is. *YOU* are willing to work to install a package. Most of 
 > the people on this list are willing to work to install a package. But the 
 > membership of this list is not representative of computer users as a whole 
 > or even linux users.
 > 
 > 
 > >   As Bucky Fuller
 > >once said "Design a system that even a fool can use, and only fools
 > >will use it" :)
 > 
 > That's absurd. Bucky Fuller was a smart guy in a lot of ways but the 
 > bizarre things he thought, said, and did would fill a volume. In fact, they 
 > have. How many people do you know who live in geodesic domes?
 > 
 > Saying that making a system easy to use means only fools will use it is 
 > just stupid.
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > >The first demonstrable factual truth is there are many people today
 > >using emacspeak and speakup, and _neither_ system is installed with a
 > >single command or two.
 > 
 > Speakup can be installed with just 2 commands. "apt-get" and then "vi 
 > /boot/grub/menu.lst".
 > 
 > 
 > >   Millions of people use Windows, and it is a
 > >nightmare to install.
 > 
 > 
 > Huh? What's so hard about installing Windows? Besides the vast majority of 
 > people have never installed Windows.
 > 
 > BTW, you're confusing "many" with "majority".  I don't know if it's fair to 
 > say that many people would be willing to jump through hoops to install 
 > IBMTTS. But even if it is, by no means does that mean that the vast 
 > majority of people would be willing.
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > >The second demonstrable factual truth is there are many people today
 > >willing to put real money on the table for the ViaVoice runtime for
 > >Linux, not a plug and play system, just the shared libraries compiled
 > >against a glib from /this/ millenium.  No push-buttons, no hand-holding
 > >1-800 numbers, no everything to everybody software that no one will
 > >ever use.  Just the runtime.  That's it.  Anything more and we'd be
 > >spending the next month of midnight oil desperately trying to /extract/
 > >the ViaVoice runtime libs from the otherwise useless package so we
 > >can graft it into the software we actually want to use.
 > 
 > Have you used DECtalk? I would imagine they're trying to put together 
 > something like what you get if you order DECtalk from phonix.
 > 
 > 
 > AAlso, it is not demonstrable that there are "many" people who just want 
 > the libs. The definition 'f "many" is in this case a *business* term.  You 
 > think a company can make money selling just the libs? Maybe. Maybe not. But 
 > it's not "demonstrable".
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > >I'm with Robert on this: the first company that will actually /sell/ me
 > >the useful ViaVoice runtime kit will get my money.
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > Well, that's fine. But you shouldn't be slamming Capitol Accessibility for 
 > wanting to put out a quality product.
 > 
 > 
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